Post by Veritee on Mar 30, 2006 11:53:26 GMT
STATEMENT OF OUR CURRENT UNDERSTANDING ON PUREPURAL PSYCHOSIS – PNI ORG UK
I thought it might help clarify what the current understanding – and policy – on Puerperal psychosis is for PNIORGUK?
Please understand we are a self help and mutual support forum and not medical practitioners or social workers so our response to this area is not something that has been explored by others. We are constantly learning about how we can support on here and what we can support and how.
This is an issue that has caused controversy on this forum before and an issue that is constantly evolving for us. It is important to get it right – not PP itself as we are not medically trained but we need to get right our attitude towards it and what our response is to those who might on the forum express a fear that they may have PP or indeed how we respond to a relative who comes on here because their loved family member is suffering PP.
In fact we had a discussion about the nature of PP and PNI in our last management committee and hope to continue this discussion at further meetings - and while we do not consider PNIORGUK to be coming from a position of being medically trained we do have a CPN and other medically trained people as part of our management and advisory structure so we do discuss this and other issues together and try to come to a working understanding of the issues.
We do understand what ‘desperate’ is saying above and we know desperate you have said this before to us . It has not fallen on deaf ears....
I am concerned desperate that you do not believe us - but we have really taken on board the essence of what your have said about PP - now and in the past.
We have therefore decided that we can not directly support acute PP, nor will we try to.
Please understand that this is a learning curve for us too. We did take note of all that has been said about PP and symptoms of PNI discussed it with those who have a medical perspective and others a therapeutic perspective and as we go on we take on board all that we can on this subject.
PP Statement
We can not directly support acute PP, nor will we try to
If we were to get anyone who felt they had PP or their relatives who suspected they may have PP then our response would be to remind them that we are not able to treat anyone and are not able to diagnose and that they should consult their medical advisors as this is a very serious forum of PNI ( PNI as defined as ANY mental/emotional illness that occurs post natally)
That Puerperal Psychosis should be regarded as a medical emergency - and while we would not turn any woman away who suspects they have PP or any relative or friend who is supporting a woman who has PP and obviously they are welcome to post here and we will support them as best we can with what they present to us
- we can do no more than offer our support and will make it clear that they need to consult a medical practitioner and suggest that they go to their GP.
I hope this is something that all woman who have posted on this section understand already.
However we also believe that PNI is not as cut and dried as portrayed in the text books.
That while we accept and understand that PP is a medical emergency - that PNI is a spectrum and women with Post Natal Illness do from time to time experience Psychotic, manic, hallucinations and other symptoms that are also experienced by those with acute PP – and while they may not have PP this can be very frightening to them and we feel able to offer support for someone going through this .
Our own direct experiences of these symptoms are irrefutable on this subject
We have taken note of what desperate and others have said on this and consulted our medical advisors and agree that having some or all of these symptoms does not mean that a woman had PP and we agree with you that full PP is very rare - about one in 2000 women isn't is as opposed to 1 in 7 who get PNI? ( Please correct me as I know my figures on this are not accurate, only an indication of how rare it is)
And we also agree that if a women is able to talk at all rationally on here than she is probably not at this time experiencing acute PP.
However you can never be sure, so we have to listen to all women that come on here and direct them to a GP etc if at all possible - we can not just turn women away because they may be too ill for us to deal with.
As well as this we feel that while we perhaps can not effectively support a women very ill with PP, there may be a time after acute PP is over and they are back at home that a woman who has had PP may want and need peer support.
We agree that as PP is so rare this may be form women who had PNI and not PP, but this does not make such support invalid or of no use, as we are all mothers and parents whose lives and relationships have been disrupted by a severer mental illness and some of us with PNI and not PP have also been hospitalised so share this additional disruption to our lives even though we have a different diagnosis.
Therefore we feel that a section on PP is useful for the reasons below:
**********************************************
Well this is our thinking about Puerperal Psychosis and the role of this forum and this section specifically at the moment
This may change as we learn more about this issue and you are all welcome to have an input about this as long as this is discussed with respect to all users of the forum and without braking the fundamental rules of the forum.
( for those of you who were not around when the issue of whether we should have this section was discussed in the past I have included this clause that we should dissucss this issue calmly as at times it has caused heated debate on the forum which has upset women – if this happens over any issue on the forum I reserve as administrator to delete the offending post/s – I am sorry I have to add this but it has proved necessary in the past)
Anyway I hope this clarifies PNIORGUK’s current thinking on PP and the support we can offer for this on this forum .
Regards to all
Veritee
I thought it might help clarify what the current understanding – and policy – on Puerperal psychosis is for PNIORGUK?
Please understand we are a self help and mutual support forum and not medical practitioners or social workers so our response to this area is not something that has been explored by others. We are constantly learning about how we can support on here and what we can support and how.
This is an issue that has caused controversy on this forum before and an issue that is constantly evolving for us. It is important to get it right – not PP itself as we are not medically trained but we need to get right our attitude towards it and what our response is to those who might on the forum express a fear that they may have PP or indeed how we respond to a relative who comes on here because their loved family member is suffering PP.
In fact we had a discussion about the nature of PP and PNI in our last management committee and hope to continue this discussion at further meetings - and while we do not consider PNIORGUK to be coming from a position of being medically trained we do have a CPN and other medically trained people as part of our management and advisory structure so we do discuss this and other issues together and try to come to a working understanding of the issues.
We do understand what ‘desperate’ is saying above and we know desperate you have said this before to us . It has not fallen on deaf ears....
I am concerned desperate that you do not believe us - but we have really taken on board the essence of what your have said about PP - now and in the past.
We have therefore decided that we can not directly support acute PP, nor will we try to.
Please understand that this is a learning curve for us too. We did take note of all that has been said about PP and symptoms of PNI discussed it with those who have a medical perspective and others a therapeutic perspective and as we go on we take on board all that we can on this subject.
PP Statement
We can not directly support acute PP, nor will we try to
If we were to get anyone who felt they had PP or their relatives who suspected they may have PP then our response would be to remind them that we are not able to treat anyone and are not able to diagnose and that they should consult their medical advisors as this is a very serious forum of PNI ( PNI as defined as ANY mental/emotional illness that occurs post natally)
That Puerperal Psychosis should be regarded as a medical emergency - and while we would not turn any woman away who suspects they have PP or any relative or friend who is supporting a woman who has PP and obviously they are welcome to post here and we will support them as best we can with what they present to us
- we can do no more than offer our support and will make it clear that they need to consult a medical practitioner and suggest that they go to their GP.
I hope this is something that all woman who have posted on this section understand already.
However we also believe that PNI is not as cut and dried as portrayed in the text books.
That while we accept and understand that PP is a medical emergency - that PNI is a spectrum and women with Post Natal Illness do from time to time experience Psychotic, manic, hallucinations and other symptoms that are also experienced by those with acute PP – and while they may not have PP this can be very frightening to them and we feel able to offer support for someone going through this .
Our own direct experiences of these symptoms are irrefutable on this subject
We have taken note of what desperate and others have said on this and consulted our medical advisors and agree that having some or all of these symptoms does not mean that a woman had PP and we agree with you that full PP is very rare - about one in 2000 women isn't is as opposed to 1 in 7 who get PNI? ( Please correct me as I know my figures on this are not accurate, only an indication of how rare it is)
And we also agree that if a women is able to talk at all rationally on here than she is probably not at this time experiencing acute PP.
However you can never be sure, so we have to listen to all women that come on here and direct them to a GP etc if at all possible - we can not just turn women away because they may be too ill for us to deal with.
As well as this we feel that while we perhaps can not effectively support a women very ill with PP, there may be a time after acute PP is over and they are back at home that a woman who has had PP may want and need peer support.
We agree that as PP is so rare this may be form women who had PNI and not PP, but this does not make such support invalid or of no use, as we are all mothers and parents whose lives and relationships have been disrupted by a severer mental illness and some of us with PNI and not PP have also been hospitalised so share this additional disruption to our lives even though we have a different diagnosis.
Therefore we feel that a section on PP is useful for the reasons below:
- as an area that women can express their very real fears that they have PP( and hopefully we can aliay their fears and direct then to consult their GP)
- an area that women who have had PP can come for peer support ( they can also use all the other areas too but an come here when they need recognition that the issues they wish to discuss are in part specific to PP)
- an area that women who have psychotic, manic, hallucinations obsessive thoughts or other symptoms experienced by both severer PNI and PP can talk about theses symptoms
- A place where a relative, carer or friend of someone with PP can come for support
- A place which will catch the eye of someone ( or their relative/friends etc) of someone suffering Puerperal Psychosis and desperately seeking help and will therefore give us a chance to direct them to seek medical help.
**********************************************
Well this is our thinking about Puerperal Psychosis and the role of this forum and this section specifically at the moment
This may change as we learn more about this issue and you are all welcome to have an input about this as long as this is discussed with respect to all users of the forum and without braking the fundamental rules of the forum.
( for those of you who were not around when the issue of whether we should have this section was discussed in the past I have included this clause that we should dissucss this issue calmly as at times it has caused heated debate on the forum which has upset women – if this happens over any issue on the forum I reserve as administrator to delete the offending post/s – I am sorry I have to add this but it has proved necessary in the past)
Anyway I hope this clarifies PNIORGUK’s current thinking on PP and the support we can offer for this on this forum .
Regards to all
Veritee